Wednesday, September 10, 2014

Americans have been sold on vitamins and supplements. Fully
half of us take one or more of them. We buy so many of them that we have
created a $30,000,000,000 industry.

Is this yet another instance of our pill popping ways, our
sense that we can cure and prevent all ills by throwing something down our
throats?

Those who have been touting the health benefits of vitamins
appear to have science on their side. By all appearances, however, the science
was skewed. New studies, reliably controlled for all extraneous factors, tell a
very different story.

Emily Oster reports on research into the effectiveness of
Vitamin E and Vitamin D:

When
the results of these studies came out, they largely refuted the idea that these
supplements offered benefits. Vitamin E appears to have no impact on cancer or
heart disease. Results from the Women’s
Health Study, released in 2005, showed no relationship between vitamin
E supplementation and overall mortality. Later results from the men in the
Physicians’ Health Study showed the same: no relationship.

For
vitamin D, the randomized trials (nicely summarized here) refuted virtually all of the purported benefits to
diabetes, weight loss and cancer. For elderly women, there is some evidence of
a small
reduction in mortality with supplementation, but well below what was
seen in observational data and only marginally statistically significant.

The
bottom line is that there is simply very little evidence that these supplements
matter. The best-case scenario is if you are an elderly woman who is deficient
in vitamin D — then a supplement might help a little. Still, in the 2009-2010
NHANES, about 30 percent of the non-elderly-female population took supplements.

And then there is the cult-like following commanded by
Vitamin C. And, who doesn’t take a multivitamin?

Oster continues:

And
it’s not just vitamins D and E. The Physicians’ Health Study also looked into
vitamin C and a one-a-day multivitamin and found the same results: no impacts
on cancer or cardiovascular
disease. Of course there are exceptions — folic acid is generally a good
idea for pregnant women — but the data increasingly suggests that most people
simply do not benefit from supplements.

Past studies went wrong because they did not control for factors
like education level, wealth and social class:

For
example, highly educated people are more likely to take vitamins but less
likely to be overweight and have diabetes — and being overweight and having
diabetes are associated with a host of health problems. This makes it virtually
impossible to separate the impact of vitamins from the impact of these other variables.
We know education and race are also very strongly linked to mortality rates.
Given this backdrop, it is an almost insurmountable challenge to tease out any
small impacts of vitamins.

Fair enough. People who are better educated have healthier
lifestyles and are less likely to be overweight. Therefore they are less likely
to have diabetes and high blood pressure. And these are the people who are most
likely to take vitamins. Ergo: correlation does not necessarily bespeak
causation.

But how does it happen that those who are better educated are
most easily duped into buying and ingesting substances whose value is dubious
at best?

Does their belief in the benefits of vitamins reduce anxiety
and thus contribute to better health? Are vitamins and supplements the ultimate placebos?

If you need to take vitamins (i.e. process and concentrated nutrients), then you are either deficient, ill, or malnourished. Most people with a proportionate diet, and adequate exposure to the sun, do not need supplements. Oh, and don't overlook hydration, sleep (i.e. reconstruction), and physical activity for a functional body and mind.

Your body only needs small amounts of vitamins. And most of these can be obtained from food in a balanced diet.

For example, seeds and nuts are one of the best sources of B vitamins. The best among these are ground flax seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, peanuts, pistachios, walnuts and almonds.

The best source for thiamine (B1) are ground flax seeds. Almonds provide the most riboflavin (B2). Peanuts provide the most niacin (B3). Sunflower seeds are full of pantothenic acid (B5). Pyridoxine (B6) is best obtained from pistachios. The best provider of folic acid are sunflower seeds. Walnuts, of course, are the big provider of omega-3 fatty acids.

Vitamin B12 is obtained from animal sources like eggs, milk and ocean fish like sardines, herring, salmon and tuna.

Excess vitamins can be harmful. As stated by the Colorado State University article: "Large doses of either single-nutrient supplements or high potency vitamin-mineral combinations may be harmful. These megavitamins may contain 10 to over 100 times the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) for a vitamin or mineral and can act like drugs with potentially serious results. Very high doses of many supplements, especially vitamins A, D, C, and B6, can cause serious health problems if taken regularly. Excess of one nutrient may cause nutritional imbalances or increase the need for other nutrients. Severe side effects such as kidney stones, liver or nerve damage, birth defects, and even death can occur from 10 to over 100 times of the DRI."

If you take a supplement, look for those with 100% of the daily recommended dosage or less. Mega doses are not only expensive and unnecessary, they can be harmful to your health.

I agree there is a tendency to go overboard with supplements however, I began taking Vitamin D (recommended by a doc friend) as well B12 supplements about 3 years ago and I haven't been sick since. Not even a winter cold after years of suffering from horrific sinus infections 1-2 times yearly. Dunno if it's the Vitamin D or not but I don't plan to stop taking it any time soon. BTW I took a multivitamin supplement for many years before that (still do) and it never had any effects on frequency or severity of illnesses like sinus infections. It was only until 6-12 months after beginning Vit D that I began to notice positive effects.